Milmauka

So much for real estate bottom fishing and 60+ PHP / USD.

I think you have it bassakwards.   

Yeah, tell that to the neighborhood that was behind my condo.  Even the units in my condo had their own machine.  Complete nightmare. 

Plenty of videoke establishments in Manila or are you gonna say they don't exist 

I emailed and asked if i could request an interview appt. 30 days before my Medical Exam expire. In ustraveldocs says that i can make a request but none in their email that i can ask for an appt to an expiring medical.
 
This is their response: 
 
*idk if i emailed the right address but it's the same address i always emailed but this time it's not an autoreply. 
 
 
Dear Ms. _____ :    We are writing in response to your October 8, 2020 inquiry regarding your fiancee (K1) visa case.   We note your request for an expedited appointment.  
Effective August 28, as it becomes safe to resume more consular operations at each U.S. mission, posts are authorized to give K visa cases high priority.  At this time, the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines has resumed limited K visa processing given local conditions and available resources.
 
The Embassy is prioritizing the following K applicants:
 
K-1/K-2 visa cases where the K-2 child will age out (turn 21 years of age) before December 31, 2020. K-2 follow-to-join applicants will age out (turn 21 years of age) before December 31, 2020. K-2 follow-to-join applicants will lose eligibility within the 18 months allowed as a follow-to-join from the time when the K-1 principal alien was issued a K visa. K1 applicants waiting for visa appointments in order to travel to the U.S. with their U.S. citizen child.  
If you believe that your application meets any of these four criteria, please directly email IVManilaReplies@state.gov with the case number and the applicant names and requests will be reviewed.
 
The Embassy will also consider the prioritization of the following K applicants:
 
Petitioner is an active U.S. military member with pending deployment. Petitioner with documented medical issues who is currently in the Philippines and unable to travel to the U.S. without assistance from the K1 applicant.  
For those applicant who meet the either of two above criteria, please also directly email IVManilaReplies@state.gov with the case number, the petitioner and applicant names, an explanation for the appointment request, and scanned supporting documents.  These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 
 
Other K visa applicants should check our website at https://ph.usembassy.gov/visas/visa-updates/ on when the Embassy will resume routine K visa processing.  Once confirmed on the Embassy's website, K visa applicants should follow the instructions on the website.
 
The resumption of routine visa services, including that of K visas, is carefully calibrated in order to safely bring our clients and our workforce to Department facilities. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we all navigate these uncertain times.
 
          Sincerely,
  CONSULAR COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
Consular Section | U.S. Embassy in the Philippines

Effective  October 5, 2020, we will begin offering limited non-emergency Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) and passport services at the U.S. Embassy in Manila and limited passport services at the U.S. Consular Agency in Cebu, by appointment only.
This is at least some good news for some of us.

Paying for a second physical at SLEC is only part of this mess.  Because she had to go through the sputum protocol the first time, and it was negative, SLEC is making her go through a second sputum protocol because SLEC claims that is Embassy protocol.  Embassy says it is complying with CDC requirements.  You just can't win.  Almost 9 months of waiting on the Embassy to issue the visa that was approved in February 2020.

They are letting Medicals expire and making you go through the SLEC process again.  Happened to us.

CFO has an Excel spreadsheet on the "Number of Filipino Spouses and Other Partners of Foreign Nationals by Major Country"
https://cfo.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/statistics/FS/FS-1989-2018-by-MAJORCOUNTRY.xlsx
The average is around 18,000 foreign spouses per year, but I don't think all of them went through CFO as spouses/fiances, so let's assume 15,000 per year. 
 
On pages 35-36, it has some interesting statistics about marriages. 
"Filipinos are most likely to marry American, Japanese and Australian citizens."
"Majority of marriage migrants (92%) are female."
"62% of marriage migrants have no professional work experience prior to migration."
"7.25% have no knowledge about their new host country." 
https://cfo.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/pdf/2017/2015compendiumstats-insidepages-2017-06-29.pdf
It also supports the numbers that 15,000-20,000 leave the PH every year for foreign marriages (but it has been declining). 
 
 
Incidence of tuberculosis (554 per 100,000 people) - Philippines = .00554
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.TBS.INCD?locations=PH
 
If 15,000 people go through SLEC and 1/3 get flagged, that means 5,000 get sputum tests and 27 people will have TB. (5,000 x .00554 = 27.7) So that means St. Luke's is flagging thousands of people every year and 99% of them will not have TB. They may flag more people like parents and older teenagers. I was just looking at marriage stats. 
 
I'm basing my 1/3 number (5,000 people) on my wife's observations of how many people were at her sputum collection area compared to her medical testing day and this post: 
 
jimmynug: My mother in law just had her medical on Tuesday, and now is going through the sputum exam. She said there were over 500 people at St Lukes on Wednesday for the sputum collection. These would have been from medicals on last Friday, Monday, and Tuesday. There were about 600 taking medicals on Monday, less on Tuesday, and I don't know on Friday. However, if it averaged 500 a day, then about 1/3 of all people taking medicals on these days were having to do sputum exams. With TB trying to make a comeback in the US, looks like the govt is really getting after St. Luke's to be careful.
Just some more info, I did quick research and it seems like the sputum smear by itself does not mean much, but compared with the ex-ray, it starts meaning more. Either way, there is the two month wait for the culture, unless it shows positive sooner.
 
 
 
My wife said they stick everyone on a rooftop outside. It's 70 people hacking and coughing around each other and trying to cover their testing cup so there is no cross contamination of the person sitting 3 ft (1 meter) away from you. It was hot and humid outside. Since she's not sick, she had a hard time coughing up sputum. She even bought a nebulizer and told the staff on the second day about it. They put her in an AC room for Day 2 and 3. Now we have to wait. 

Congrats. I am sure our embassy will be opening next. Did you schedule your interview yourself?

Received an email from NVC that notified me that my case is in transit!!! I'm beyond elated!! 

Approved ☺️🙂 yesterday...

Hopefully, the trend of getting things to open up again continues. I'm trying to be optimistic that full embassy operations will begin to ramp up on October 1, also. The mayors of metro Manila will vote on Sunday to reduce restrictions to MGCQ. 

I keep smart traveler app on my phone.   Has all the numbers worldwide.
 
For crba email acs if you can't schedule online.
 
If it is an emergency call the emergency number:
U.S. Citizen Emergencies During Office Hours
+63 (02) 5301-2246
U.S. Citizen Emergencies After Hours
+63 (02) 5301-2000 and press 0
 

Hi everyone,
 
I just wanted to stop in and thank everyone for their positivity, well wishes and good thoughts.  It really means alot to us.  
Today marks our 15th month of waiting for Noa2.  There has been no change.  Two 'outside normal processing times' requests.  
We are together, we are still fighting, although the damn time zones could shift a little!!! 
I hope you are all well and staying safe
Thank you again

So Georgia, Taiwan and Jamaica now open for processing of K1. I am sure the Philippines will be next. Stay positive guys.
And Ukraine

Hi, 
I received an email today from the NVC stating my K1 petition is being sent to the Jamaican Embassy. It's shows "in transit" on the website. 😊🤞🏻

WOOHOO!!!  Our case is on the way to the embassy in Ukraine!  Status has been updated to In-Transit/Ready!!!!!

It’s not the end of the world. Better now than down the road after you’re married then she pops the divorce question. Also no need trying to further convince her to stay in the relationship. 
 
Unlike others saying let the petition just die, I would suggest you ask her to withdraw the petition so everything is clean and you don’t have an immigrant petition hanging over your head.
 
You will smile again one day, actively work on making that happen sooner rather than later.

What does it matter? 

Were you present for the signing?

Hey guys,
 
Very sadly our relationship did not survive the prolonged time apart and it’s with the heaviest heart I need some advice on how to withdraw K1 application. We have NOA2 and it’s currently sitting at NVC since March. 
 
I am beyond heartbroken and would appreciate if people will be kind in what they say about this, just the quickest and easiest way to do it please?

Thank you for everyone’s help in the past, especially you @Greenbaum ❤️
 
Good luck on everyone’s visas going forward. 
 

That's basically what I have been hearing the last couple of months.

If they are basing it on improvement of local conditions, there is a high possibility this wont be until at least May next year.  The Philippines may be in the worse position then almost any country in the world.  They continue to have an ever increasing confirmed case count, but also have the most draconian rules to try and prevent the spread which basically shows its not working.  The country that may have the most out of control confirmed case count could be the US, but then there are no draconian rules that would limit services too much.  I have heard that they do not plan on opening up the country and loosening restrictions until their citizens start to be vaccinated.  
 
The thing that really annoys me with the Embassy in the Manila, is that Embassy is perfectly set up for this kind of situation where social distancing, etc is required.  It is not a "cramped" embassy in the least bit.  I still feel they should continue interviews for all classes of visas for people who are already in Manila as I cannot see any reason why they cant do these on a limited basis.  If you have been in that Embassy, youll know what Im talking about from the amount of space, etc etc etc etc etc etc. 
 
 

Got the email that our case left the NVC today and is now on its way to NZ! Maybe there’s a chance my fiancé will be here by the end of 2020 after all? Fingers crossed!